It Beats For You So Listen Close
by neverland-x
Summary: Jess and her friends are at the bungalow with the five most desirable boys in the world. Why is Zayn being moody? Why is he acting like that towards Niall? One Direction Story.


Kara, Paige, Lily, Ella and I were sitting round a small fire with our five best friends, Harry, Niall, Zayn, Liam and Louis.

Each of us have a wooden stick, and there's a massive bowl of marshmallows in the middle of us.

I skewer one and hold it into the dancing flames, lightly scorching it before blowing onto it and popping it into my mouth.

The gooey texture explodes in my mouth in a cloud of sweetness.

We're at a bungalow that Louis rented out for the week, all of us needing a getaway from our crazy lives.

Being best friends with none other than One Direction, though surprising, can have rough spots.

I'm sitting, curled up on Niall's lap, my head on his shoulder, him playing lightly with my hair.

Next to us is Harry and Paige, then Kara and Zayn, and Lily and Liam and Louis and Ella, each of us in similar positions.

Well, all except for Harry and Paige, where Paige is sitting in the seat, Harry laying his head across her lap, and Paige tangling her fingers into his thick, dark curls.

And Kara is sitting in the seat, and Zayn on the floor, leaning his head against her knees.

Surprisingly, none of us are couples.

We're all too close for that I suppose, more like brothers and sisters than anything.

Obviously, the paparazzi try to make it out as more. But if we're caught in cosy positions, like now, I suppose, it's all because we're so close.

Niall suddenly gives a chuckle, breaking the silence.

I look up at him, one eyebrow raised.

"What?" Harry says.

"It's just- I was just thinking back to when we all met…" Niall says, a small grin on his face.

"Oh my gosh…" Ella says, laughing to herself quietly.

_~Flashback~_

_We're all sitting in our makeshift bed in my living room about a dozen duvets littering the floor, and far more cushions and pillows._

_Lily's wearing her David and Goliath 'You're so pugly!' pyjamas, Kara is in purple checked bottoms and a navy top, Paige in sky blue shorts and a lilac top, Ella sitting comfortably in grey track suit bottoms and a white Coca Cola top, and I'm wearing my peach coloured shorts and white t-shirt. _

_Just Married is playing on the TV, as is my Blackberry, which is blaring out the Up All Night album._

_We laugh as Ashton Kutcher does his amazing impression of a pigeon on the film._

"_Kevin!" We all shout in unison, and fall about laughing._

_We spend some time just watching the film, raving to the music and throwing popcorn and skittles at each other._

"_Kay guys, about to make history here!" Lily shouts._

_She grabs a purple skittle and gestures to it in a glamorous assistant manner, and grabs the bowl of melted chocolate we prepared earlier._

_She dips the skittle into the chocolate, and puts it in her mouth._

_I swear, her eyes almost pop out of her skull._

"_OMG guys! That's amazing! Oh my god!" She squeals, chewing slowly._

_We chuckle at her and continue doing what we were previously, before we hear a very loud crash from upstairs._

"_Damn." Paige whispers. _

"_What the hell was that?" Ella murmurs, her face set with pure shock and, though I hate to say it, fear._

_Paige grabs the remote to turn off the TV and taps my phone to turn the music off too._

_I gulp and stand up slowly, walking towards the living room door._

"_Jess! What are you doing?" Kara whispers as loud as she dares._

"_What does it look like? I'm going to investigate!" I say._

_All the girls rise and move over to the door with me, and we poke our heads out through the door._

_Quickly and quietly, we scamper through the hallway and up the stairs, silently begging the floorboards not to creak._

_As we approach the top of the stairs, we hear hushed voices, young, and all male._

_And then, from outside on the street we hear loud, high pitched screams echoing through the street, and something that sounds similar to stampeding elephants._

_I turn to look at my friends in horror._

"_What the hell is happening?" I say, but they all motion for me to be quiet so we can hear what the voices are saying._

"_Boys, what are we doing?"_

"_We just broke into a house!"_

"_Shut up guys, I'm thinking."_

"_We need to get out!"_

"_I hope no one's home…"_

_We all frown at each other._

"_They sound way too familiar…" Paige mumbles._

_I breathe deeply and creep into my parents room, where there's a plank of wood, for, you know, something._

_I pick it up, and motion for the girls to follow me to my bedroom door._

_I grasp the handle, slowly turn it and throw the door open, brandishing the piece of wood._

_In my room, pacing, sitting on my bed, looking out of the window then hiding behind the curtains, are One Direction._

_All ten of as start to scream, our voices mingling horribly._

_When we all finally stop, I drop the wood to the floor._

_It falls, and lands on Kara._

_She grabs her foot and swears loudly._

_I turn around to her, and let out a short burst of laughter, and all of us girls start laughing, and turning back to the boys, see that they're chuckling at her too._

"_Umm, hey," Liam says. "Look, we're so sorry. We've been chased by fans, and we saw this window open-"_

_Louis interrupts. "And we were like 'Oh, open window, lets climb in to save our lives from these crazy fans-"_

_Harry cuts in."But, by the look of this room…" He looks around. "-It seems we've simply run into the clutches of even more." He grins._

_I look at my walls, which are dripping with posters of the boys, my One Direction bed cover, my 1D hoodie draped across my chair, all of their dolls and my One Direction school bag hanging from the door. _

_I'm just glad they haven't gone into the small side room, where One Direction Infection truly takes over._

_The boys are dressed simply, in chinos or jeans. Louis wears a striped top and braces with his Toms, Niall a blue hoodie, white top and white hi tops, Harry a navy knitted jumper and white Converse, and Zayn in a grey elbow length top and hi tops._

_I am completely astounded, as my friends and I introduce us to the boys._

_"Um, hey, I'm Ella..." Ella says, waving._

_"Hey dudes, I'm Kara!" She winks and grins. How she's so confident at a time like this I don't know._

_"Paige here," Paige smiles at the boys._

_"I-I'm Lily." Lily says, her eyes wide, the fact her idols are standing in front of her still setting in._

_"And, I'm Jess. Hi boys." I say._

_One Direction proceed to introduce themselves._

_"I'm Harry," Harry waggles his fingers at us, his deep voice putting all focus on him._

_"Zayn." He raises his hand, smiling awkwardly._

_"I'm Liam," Liam says, smiling politely._

_Niall pops his head up from the side of the bed._

_"Hey, Niall here!" He says, all of us laughing at him._

_"I'M LOUIS 'THE TOMMO' TOMLINSON!' Louis shouts. _

_I can just imagine the girls standing there thinking , 'MEGAMIND.'_

_"Um, guys, you know that was really unneeded. I'm sure, being the Directioners we all are, we know your names, and much more." I say._

_The boys laugh._

"_God, I need to pee." Niall says, his beautiful Irish accent sending chills up my spine._

"_Erm, just through that door," I say distractedly, and he hurries into the toilet, locking the door behind him._

_Until Niall is finished with his business, we all stand quietly, just saying completely random thing about each other, or the room._

_We hear a flush come from the bathroom, and all turn to the door where Niall appears, surprised at the sudden attention. _

_He shuffles over to where Liam is stood, and stands next to him._

_We all stand in silence for a bit, before Zayn murmurs, "Awkward turtle, mate."_

_I snort, and we all fall about laughing, even though it wasn't really that funny._

"_So, strangers, home alone?" Harry asks us._

_Lily clears her throat. "Erm yeah, Jess' parents are gone for the weekend, so we took advantage."_

_She gestures to me and smiles, revealing her braces._

"_Hey, snap!" Niall grins, tapping his barely noticeable braces._

_We all chuckle quietly._

_Louis stand up from the bed. _

"_Well, I don't know about you guys, but I think, seeing as we were complete strangers as of three minutes ago, we should try to get to know each other a bit." _

_We all agree, and we lead the boys downstairs to the living room._

"_Erm, music?" I say, grabbing my iPod and putting it on shuffle._

_To my absolute horror, the first song to come on is Another World._

_I gasp and my cheeks flush pink, but the boys don't seem to mind, all of them singing along._

_God, One Direction is sitting in my living room._

_They are singing to one of their songs._

_They sound amazing._

_They look amazing._

_This is so flipping unreal._

_I pick my iPod up and sit in the gap in the circle everyone made, throwing it into the middle._

_Within the next few hours, we all get to know each other, playing games, laughing and chatting._

_~End of flashback~_

We all laugh together as we all finish telling the story.

Zayn seems distant and brooding, not saying anything to anyone.

I give him a questioning look as I catch his gaze upon me, but he just looks away, showing no sign of further emotion or thought.

Louis seems to have noticed as well, and raises his eyebrows at me.

I shake my head slightly, looking down to Niall's hands which are set on top of the smaller pair that are mine.

Despite none of us being in a relationship, Zayn is so beautiful.

His dark eyes are deep and thoughtful, his hair neatly styled all the time, and his smile is so perfect.

As I find myself looking at Zayn, he looks up, straight into my eyes.

I give a tiny smile, but, again, he looks away without doing anything.

Liam yawns widely, setting all of us off doing the exact same thing.

"You know, I think we all better go to bed…" Paige says, shutting her eyes tight and reopening them.

"But there are only five rooms…" Kara points out.

"And all of them only have single beds, so it looks like we'll be sharing beds as well as rooms." Louis grins, wiggling his eyebrows.

I shrug my shoulders. "I don't care who I go with." I say, looking down into my lap.

Everyone else erupts into a flurry of saying who they won't go with for whatever reason.

Niall isn't speaking very loudly, and his quiet, low Irish voice is very comforting in my ear.

I'm just alone in my little world until Louis shouts, "Right then, sorted!"

"So, Lily is sharing with Kara, and Ella with Paige," Harry begins.

"Thanks guys! Leave me with one of the boys!" I grin.

"And then Louis and Harry, shockingly, are sharing." Liam says, as Harry winks at Louis and licks his lips, and Louis returns the favour by blowing a kiss.

We all laugh at them. Larry Stylinson honestly could be real, judging by those boys act together.

So I'm lumbered with either Liam, who will just go to sleep and be sensible, probably like me. Then there's Niall, who I'm probably closest with out of the boys, so we'll talk for a while, and eat, obviously.

Then there's Zayn. Brooding Zayn, who for some reason is acting very off with everyone tonight.

"And me and Liam are sharing." Niall murmurs, his breath hitting my hair.

"So that means, mateys, Zayn and Jess will be sharing." Harry smiles.

"As long as you don't hog the cover, Zayny." I smile.

He looks up as his name is said, but says nothing.

"Don't hog her either." Harry grins.

"Harry!" Ella cries.

Louis obviously, decides to go and make things even more awkward than Harry did before.

"Now kiddies, don't do anything silly, okay? But, if you must insist, please do use protection. I'm sure Harry has a spare."

I groan at Louis' joke, while everyone else has just burst out laughing.

I begin to laugh to, and look over at Zayn.

He's staring at me, but he quickly looks away when I look at him.

I've got to ask him what's wrong.

When we're in our room, so it's more private though.

I'm sure, whatever it is, he doesn't want everyone knowing what it is.

He probably won't want me to know, come to think of it.

We all go inside, for it's getting cold, and sit in the living room.

Niall, Liam and Harry lay on the floor, Ella and Paige squash into one of the armchairs, Kara sits on a beanbag, Zayn sits in the corner, in a wooden chair, and I lay across Lily and Louis who are on the sofa.

Despite being tired, we all say we can't be bothered to sleep at the moment, which I know really doesn't make sense, but it's the truth.

We decide on watching a film for a bit, and, to no surprise, Louis whips out Paranormal Activity 2.

Harry and I give each other a look and I leap from Louis' lap, Harry sit's up, and we both snuggle into each other.

Being the only two who hate scary films can definitely have it's disadvantages.

As the ghost approaches someone, Harry and I hide in each other's shoulders, shutting our eyes tight.

As we do so, I sense the light turn on.

We look up, and Kara's at the switch.

"We better go to bed now. It's getting late." She says.

I look at the clock on the wall. Half past eleven? Where did the time go?

We all agree and run down the corridor to which room we want.

Zayn and I are slowest, so get the last room, which is a sickly green colour.

"Nice." I say, grinning up at Zayn. He looks at me, still in silence.

I grab my bags from the front door, and chuck them on one side of the bed.

Going into the bathroom with my pyjamas, I get changed into white shorts and a light blue top, and brush my teeth.

My bare feet pad back to the room where Zayn is sitting on the edge of the bed in grey track suit bottoms and no top, pulling his socks off.

It was only at the fire he began getting moody. The rest of the day he'd been just like the rest of us, laughing joking, chatting.

Well, it's now or never.

"Hey Zayn," I say, throwing my clothes from today into a pile in the corner.

"Hi Jess." He replies.

I tug a hair band off of my wrist, and pull my curly, golden brown hair into a bun. I don't want it going wild in the morning.

"What's wrong Zayn?" I say finally.

"Wrong?" He says, turning to look at me. "Nothing's wrong."

"Yes there is. I'm not an idiot." He gives me a weird look.

"Jess, there's nothing wrong, okay?"

"Why have you been acting off with everyone? All day you've been perfectly fine, then at the campfire, you get all moody! Seriously, what is wrong?" I tell him.

"I've already told you Jess! Nothing's wrong!" His voice is rising.

"Stop lying to me! We're best friends!" I shout.

I hear footsteps, and Niall comes to the door.

"You okay guys?" He asks, looking back and forth from us.

"Go away Niall! It's none of your business, okay?" Zayn yells, throwing a pillow at him.

"Jesus, Zayn! What's your problem?" Niall cries, dodging the pillow.

A crowd's gathering at the door.

"Guys," I murmur. "It's all okay. Goodnight."

Everyone leaves, except for Niall.

"Night Jess." He says, entering the room and enveloping me in a hug.

What the boys say is true, he really does give the best hugs.

Niall pulls away and goes to his own room, and when I look back at Zayn, he's staring at me, looking disgusted.

I raise an eyebrow, and pull the duvet away from the bed.

The fact that the bed's a single one makes everything a whole lot more awkward.

As Zayn climbs in, I can feel the heat radiating off of him.

His bare back rubs against my clothed one, making me freeze.

I shut my eyes and try to lose myself in a dream.

I awake a couple of hours later, feeling colder than before, and stretch myself out across the bed.

'Wait, what?' I think to myself. Zayn's gone.

I lay there for a few minutes, and decide I'm not going to get back to sleep, so I might as well do something.

I pull a turquoise bikini from my suitcase and change into it.

The water will be absolutely freezing, but I don't care.

I open the back door quietly, and slip out.

I see a certain someone sitting dangling his feet in the pool.

Zayn turns around as he hears me approach, but looks into the water as he sees it's me.

I walk past him, my leg brushing his back, and dive cleanly into the pool.

I tread water for a few moments, and swim over to Zayn.

"You coming in?" I ask.

He shakes his head. "I can't swim," he whispers, and I see his cheeks flush.

"Well, I could teach you. It's not that deep. Look!" I say, standing up, where it comes to where my shoulders are. I'm quite short, so it'd come to his chest.

He looks into the water uncertainly.

"I won't let you drown, Zayn, I swear," I promise him.

I take his hand and lead him in to the pool. He shifts his body from the poolside into the water, and slips beneath the surface.

Still grasping onto my hand, he emerges through the water, blinking hard, gasping and shaking his dark head, droplets of water flying from him.

"It's okay, you can let go." I say.

Reluctantly, he releases my hand.

I show him a position to get in to begin, and launch myself forward, and swim to other end of the pool.

"Now you try."

Zayn tries to push himself forward and do the stroke correctly, but ends up in the middle of the pool, flailing around.

"Damn," I say, swimming as fast as possible to where Zayn is ducking beneath the water and resurfacing, gasping for air and choking.

I reach him and grab his wrists, pulling him upwards.

He chokes for breath and clings to me, pulling my body close to his.

I wrap my arms around him, stroking his hair.

"I'm so sorry Zayn." I whisper into his ear. "Don't worry, you're okay now. I won't let anything else happen to you.

I pull away and take a look at him, biting my lip as I see him.

Tears are streaming down his face.

"Zayn, I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry." I wipe his eyes and pull him into another deep hug, his breath shaky.

It's him who pulls away now.

"I was jealous." He murmurs.

"That's what was wrong?" I say. "Who of?"

"Niall," he says, so quietly I barely hear him

"Niall? Why?" I ask.

"Because of the way you were with him. You looked so happy, sitting there in his arms," he says. "I knew I didn't have a chance if you loved Niall."

"Zayn…" I say, pushing his chin up, forcing him to look me in the eyes.

His dark eyes stare deep into my own, and before I know, Zayn has grabbed my hand and pulled me towards him.

Millimetres away from each other, I decide it's me who has to close the distance.

So with that, closing my eyes, I place my mouth against his.

His lips are warm, and wet from the water, slightly salty from the tears.

He wraps his arms around me, and I do the same, mesmerised.

It's when he pulls me beneath the surface of the water that catches me by surprise.

I open my eyes and look around.

It feels odd, strange, different.

But it's amazing.

We release each other, and bob back up into the air, taking a deep breath.

I grab Zayn and embrace him deeply.

"I'm sorry." I say. "I love you."

He kisses me again, gentler this time.

I can feel him smiling against my mouth, his lips still wet.

* * *

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